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London - Scotland flyhalf Finn Russell has been ruled out of Saturday's Six
Nations match away to France with a head injury, Scottish Rugby
announced Tuesday.

The influential playmaker was substituted before half-time for
Paris-based club side Racing 92 in Sunday's loss to Toulouse and failed
the initial head injury assessment.

Russell had six days in which to satisfy protocols for returning from
a head injury and when he joined up with the Scotland camp symptom free
on Monday, team management felt there was still an outside chance he
could face France.

But the Scottish Rugby Union statement put paid to those hopes on
Tuesday, with a statement saying: "The 26-year-old playmaker has not
satisfied the requirements of today's component of the graduated return
to play protocol - two days on from sustaining the injury in Racing
92's Top 14 clash with Toulouse - meaning there is insufficient time
for him to be considered for this weekend's action.

"He will now return to the care of his club's medical team."

Scotland, already hard hit by injuries before the Six Nations, will
now be without six of the players who started in their opening win over
Italy.

Full-back Stuart Hogg, who suffered a shoulder injury in a 22-13
defeat by Ireland at Murrayfield on February 10, centre Huw Jones and
Russell are all missing from behind the scrum.

Scotland coach Gregor Townsend, whose side are third in this season's
Championship standings, is due to name his team to play France on
Thursday.

Townsend added Worcester flyhalf Duncan Weir as cover for Russell on
Monday, while Adam Hastings - the son of Scotland great Gavin Hastings - and Glasgow team-mate Peter Horne can play at stand-off as well.

Scottish players based at clubs abroad - like Russell - can still
feature for the national team, unlike the situation in England.

Had Russell been at Glasgow or Edinburgh, however, it was likely he
would have been rested for last weekend's round of Pro14 matches as was
the case with several of his Scotland team-mates.

His injury highlights the problems countries with a relatively small
playing base such as Scotland face when leading players opt for more
lucrative club deals overseas.

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